"You hadn't seen him in action! One moment the monster was there, the next moment everything went perfectly silent–"
Pom-Pom listened attentively to March's tales, punctuated with animated gestures and sound effects. Dan Heng was seated not too far away using a cloth to wipe and polish his lance, Himeko was typing away at her terminal, while Welt was observing everyone quietly with a relieved look on his face.
It was truly unfortunate that the Antimatter Legion chose today of all days to invade this planet that the Express also happened to visit, but it was also a blessing that the children were safe. If Lucine was a little late or if they were unable to somehow reach the children in time for whatever reasons…
Welt forced himself to not dwell on that possibility. Both children are good children and it would devastate the members of the Express if they were irreversibly hurt or lost their lives to such an incident. He would have to ensure that they will be better protected in any future expeditions. At least, until the day both of them are skilled and powerful enough to be able to handle most galatical threats on their own power.
His gaze slowly landed on the last member of the Express, who was seated by the piano and playing another tune nobody had ever heard before. It was apparent that Lucine was unable to recall the full and complete piece that he's currently playing because he kept coming to a stop at a certain stanza with a confused frown on his face. There were several attempts to try recalling and completing the piece from his fractured memories, but he wasn't successful.
To say that Welt was not at least a little bit curious about Lucine's origin and homeworld would be a lie. The man was as enigmatic as the Aeon Mythus from start to end if he thought about it. Found as a puddle of water with very active and strong signs of life and vitality, suddenly taking on the shape of a man, summons a sword from out of nowhere that Welt suspects hold power comparable to his Star of Eden, unparalleled swordsmanship, ability to perceive truth from lies on an instinctual level like it's a passive ability… he hadn't even got to the bottom of the list.
Yet, for all of his oddities the man was also one of the most pure and forthcoming people Welt had ever met. Lucine is a man who strongly believes in and fights to uphold justice, he cannot and will not stand aside and watch as injustice unfolds. He is a staunch believer in the path he walked on and that is a conviction that Welt can acknowledge and respect.
The level of power that Lucine so casually wields though… It's honestly a little terrifying, even for Welt, but he's confident that he's still capable enough to be able to stop Lucine at his worst in that hypothetical scenario. Still, for anyone to casually possess such power is too unusual and Welt cannot help but wonder if Lucine was actually among the ranks of a very unique category of beings in the universe.
The Emanators.
Emanators, Pathstriders with power directly granted by the Aeons. They are incomparably more powerful than mere mortals. They are typically seen as enforcers of Aeons' wills. If mortals receiving the grace of Aeons and grasping the power of Paths are viewed as a singular shattered foam, then the mighty feats of Aeons driving their Paths onwards can be likened to a towering tsunami that engulfs mountains. Lucine's power definitely felt like a tsunami– no, it felt more like the neverending depths of the abyss of the great sea.
Everlasting, unendingly vast, and unfathomably deep.
But if Lucine truly is an Emanator, which Path did he stride on? That truly is a mystery that confounded Welt. He wasn't sure if he was limited by the boundaries of his knowledge and experience as a singular person, but he just couldn't peg the qualities of the power Lucine usually displayed to any Path that he had witnessed.
He was brought out of his inner musing when he realised that the Parlor Car had gone silent while he was lost in his thoughts. The only sound he could hear was once again, the sound of the piano. A different piece was being played, one that sounded far too melancholic and probably was why it had everyone's attention. Yet, the piece was so tragically beautiful that it couldn't help but tug at his heartstrings. He began to recall some memories he had long buried in that short yet sad tune. The good, the bad, people who he had met, people who he had lost, people who he knew would never meet again.
The piece wasn't very long. It ended as soon as it had started and prolonged silence permeated the Parlor Car for a short while before it was finally broken.
"So… So beautiful… but so… sad…" March sniffed. "Seriously Lucine, why did you make me cry like that? You just made me remember the sad scene from the latest episode we were watching two days ago!"
"The song just came to my mind naturally," Lucine answered. "Pluie sur la ville… Rain on the City. Why did raindrops fall upon the city like tearful cries? Nobody can answer but… it's alright to cry. That's why rain falls upon the city."
Another prolonged silence fell over the Parlor Car.
"That doesn't sound like you at all."
"I know. These weren't my words, I'm just reciting them from memory. Somebody who I still cannot remember was the one who spoke these words to me. I think she was the one who taught me about music."
"Whoever that person was, he or she must have really been a passionate lover of the musical arts."
"I believe so too," Lucine agreed with Himeko's statement. "I don't know why, I just had a feeling that she… she really loved the violin out of all the instruments she knew how to play. However, out of all the instruments that I had verified which I knew I could play to varying extents, the violin is the one that I'm the worst with."
"Then… practice more and get better at it?"
"Very well said, March 7th. Seeing how terrible you handled yourself in your last live combat deployment I believe all you need to get better at combat is a few more practice sessions with yours truly. Shall we start now?"
"E-E-EH?! N-No! Not now! And what deployment?! Don't make it sound as if we are mercenaries! We were ambushed! Ambushed! If they had fought me and Dan Heng fair and square I would have got them to eat my six-phased ice! And we only just got back! Can't a girl get a break?!"
"Rest is for the weak."
"I'm weak! I'm weak! That's why I need rest–"
"You mean this is precisely why you need more training. On your feet, March, and march to the car where we normally have our lessons. Your next lesson starts now."
March's incomprehensible screaming continued.
The sights of the galaxy viewed through the windows of the Parlor Car were mesmerising in a way that made the observer feel so small in this vast universe. However, the lack of a blue sky often made it difficult for voyagers of the sea of stars to tell day apart from night. As such, it's imperative to keep time to gauge how long one had stayed awake to ensure that they always had sufficient rest, for the body's biological clock can always be easily fooled if no definitive instrument was used to measure time.
However, he's just a pool of water given sentience and which takes on the shape of man. He had no real need for rest and if he did, he never needed to rest for very long.
"Still not asleep?"
"I could say the same for you," Lucine replied to Himeko, who had walked up to stand beside Lucine who was silently staring out of the window watching the sea of stars as the Express continued to head to their next destination. Both Nameless stood side by side like this in comfortable silence for a long while.
"You really were worried for the kids today."
"We all were."
"True," Himeko conceded. It was also why neither her nor Welt stopped Lucine when he dragged a screaming March back to training earlier. They understood that it's the only way Lucine knew how to express his care and concern, to impart to her the knowledge and skills which he's the best at. March may have a unique and potentially powerful ability in the form of the six-phased ice, but she's still undoubtedly a greenhorn where matters involving combat were concerned.
"How long have you been here on the Express?"
"Quite a while," Himeko replied, her memories bringing her back to the shoreline where the waters jostled against her like how the tide treated that stranded Express, alone and lost. The Express asked whether she would like to travel together and she wondered what kind of journey that would be.
"A journey to the beginning."
"Let's go then. Just as you brought me home, so would I take you home, too."
She knows that this journey is lonely. Even if she could get to know like-minded travel companions, even if they showed her generous grace, even if she could witness the end of a complete journey with those companions — that's all just a momentary fluke. Nobody can follow in the exact same footsteps as anyone else.
Because one day, some day, they will all disembark from the Express when they all reach their intended or destined stops, as all Nameless would eventually do.
"Those that you had seen disembarked, were they happy when they reached their stop?"
"I don't know for sure. I can't claim to be on good terms with every single one of them," a certain pretentious blond man came to Himeko's mind as she said that, "but at least right now, I really like how our crew is turning out to be. I really enjoy our adventures together, no matter how dangerous it can be sometimes."
"Me too. I enjoyed the journey too," Lucine agreed. "Every journey has its final day, don't rush– I think someone used to say that to me before. Never stop searching, even if only for a brief flash of light. If nothing else, we have the present moment– I believe another person who used to be a close friend of mine said this too. Yet, I can't remember a single one of them. Their voices echoed in my head from time to time when I least expected them to, and I can never remember their faces. And then, I cannot help but think– will I still be me when I finally recall my memories? Will I be the same or a different person? For the better or worse?"
"I think it's a good thing you told me all of that. I can't imagine how it must have felt to have these all bottled up inside," Himeko replied after a moment of silence. "I will not presume to say that I can fully understand your feeling, because I don't and I can't simply for the fact that I had never lost my memories the way you or March did. I just want to say, if you need a listening ear, if you need to get something off your chest, I am more than willing to be your quiet listener."
"Thanks, Haborym. Huh, wait, Haborym? Who's that?"
"This isn't the first time you called me by that name. You really are making me curious about this Haborym person you kept mistaking me to be," Himeko teased.
"I'm quite curious about it too," Lucine nodded. "I can't remember her face or voice but everytime I think of her I feel… like… she's a warm person to be with? I would think of the sun, a large fire, and somehow… the urge to challenge her to a duel?"
"She must be a powerful combatant then, likely someone who is an equal to you in terms of skill and power."
"Perhaps," Lucine conceded. "I felt that I remembered something important when I saved March from that monster back there. Something or someone… purple? A sakura tree, I think? But I cannot recall anything after we returned to the Express. Whoever that was that I recalled, it felt… important?"
"Now I'm really curious. Is there anyone else on the Express you felt resembled someone you think you might have known?"
"You know the cane that Welt always brought around with him?" Lucine asked and Himeko nodded. "I don't know why, but when I first joined the Express I kept having the feeling that it would only seem right if the cane was blue in colour, and I kept thinking that Welt must have had a hobby of tasting water from all over the world, and that… I just kept thinking he must be a much more serious man than he usually was. A strict enforcer, that was what I kept thinking him to be but looking back, I must be mistaking him to be somebody else I had once known and forgotten too."
"How about Dan Heng? You had a flash when you two first met."
"He… reminded me of someone, that was for certain. I remembered seeing huge monoliths in my memories and for some reason I kept expecting to see horns on his head, dragon horns like the vidyadhara of the Xianzhou, shining like gold. Maybe he's really a vidyadhara?"
"Dan Heng never said it but he definitely was from the Xianzhou, although we wouldn't know if he's really one of Long's scions or not. Maybe he has a brother who is also your friend? You can try searching for clues about your homeworld when we inevitably reach the Xianzhou at one of our stops."
"You are right, it's worth a shot. Maybe I had visited one of the Xianzhou ships at one point in my life."
"How about March?"
"Her personality reminds me of a brat that I think I once taught. Always complaining, always skiving off in our lessons at any chance she could get… I think. I don't remember much but I can feel that if something were to happen to her, I would do anything to keep her safe. March, she… invoked a similar feeling in me as well. Maybe she subconsciously reminded me of somebody who I used to care about."
"And Pom-Pom?"
"He gives off this impression that… he vaguely resembles some sort of creature that lived among the citizens in my homeworld but I cannot recall anything else other than the fact that they had short horns on their head," Lucine shook his head. "Or maybe there simply wasn't anything resembling Pom-Pom back in my homeworld, I'm not too sure."
"You should feel free to speak your mind like this more often. You are usually too quiet. Also, if you are prone to forgetting things that you randomly recall, we can remember it for you. I don't want to make it sound like I'm boasting but I have a good memory."
"I'm too quiet? I thought I was already very talkative on the Express."
"That's being talkative? Now I really am wondering how quiet you usually were before you met us."